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What is AXF?

AXF is an open-standard object-container for file-based assets and their associated metadata. It allows any type, size and number of files to be stored, transported and preserved as a collection on any type of storage technology while maintaining full independence of file or operating system and underlying storage.

Over a decade in development, AXF addresses the need for a long-term open storage and preservation format while overcoming the limitations of legacy file and container offerings. AXF was first published as an International Standard by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) in 2014 and later by ISO/IEC in 2017.

AXF allows you to bundle files and any amount of metadata (descriptive, technical, proprietary, etc.) into an immutable, self-describing preservation package while maintaining your ability to dynamically interact with any of the assets contained inside an object. Leveraging AXF, your valuable assets will be protected now and into the future, regardless of the technology you choose today or may choose tomorrow.

AXF Technology Built Just for You

AXF was designed from the ground up to be light-weight and easy to implement at the application level. It is a unique approach to the storage and management of your valuable digital assets, regardless of your use-cases, environment or technology.

Industry Standard

AXF is a published International Standard (SMPTE and ISO/IEC) in use by hundreds of organizations around the globe protecting and preserving the world's most valuable assets now and into the future

AXF Overview

Brian Campanotti (cloudfirst.io) is one of the primary inventors of AXF and its long-standing global evangelist. He gives a high level overview of this game-changing standard and describes some of the industry use-cases which drove its invention. He also touches on some of the business drivers leading to its successful wide-scale global adoption in several industries.

Key Features

Today AXF is storing, protecting and preserving hundreds of petabytes of the world's most important digital content across many vertical industries.

Here are some core reasons why organizations trust AXF.

Any Type of Data

AXF supports any type of data as well as any number of files of any size. It may be hard to believe but AXF is being used to store, protect and preserve new 4K movies, historical documents and images, evidence and much more.

Metadata Encapsulation

Fundamentally connecting file data with its associated technical and descriptive metadata ensures portability and recoverability by foreign systems with no additional information or context required.

Highly Resilient

As long-term preservation and accessibility is key, AXF includes many foundational resilience features such as redundant index structures, file and metadata signatures, file-footers which replicate core file-data and more.

Any Technology

No one can predict the future of storage. The good news is AXF supports them all. Whether you are using NAS, SAN, data-tape, private or public Cloud or even considering emerging technologies like DNA, AXF has you covered!

Infinite Scale

Born in the media and entertainment industry where a single 8K film can produce a data-set in excess of 10PB, AXF can scale! There are no limits to how large AXF objects can grow!

Preservation Focused

AXF will not impede your workflow as it was designed from the ground up to support any usage patterns in any environment while still delivering true OAIS-standard preservation benefits.

Chain of Custody and Provenance

The Provenance capabilities of AXF, fundamentally important for preservation, can be extended to support true evidentiary Chain-of-Custody in many other applications.

Versioning

AXF objects are immutable. However, the reality is data does evolve over time. Without violating core OAIS preservation principles, AXF fully supports versioning for both payload and metadata.

A Brief History of AXF

From initial conception through to global industry standardization, AXF took a team of dedicated individuals more than a decade of work to complete.

April 2006The Birth of AXF

Thought leaders and industry experts from Front Porch Digital, Masstech and SGL meet in Las Vegas to discuss the industry need for a standard to store, protect and preserve the immense (and valuable) data-sets in Media and Entertaiment.

October 2008 SMPTE AXF WG Formed

Gaining significant traction in the industry, the founding members becomes an official working committee under SMPTE. AXF continues development under SMPTE 10E30WG-AXF or the Archive eXchange Format (AXF) working committee.

April 2011AXF First Public Release

At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas, Front Porch Digital announces the completion of their AXF implementation and its release to market as part of their DIVArchive V7.0 Content Storage Management (CSM) solution.

September 2014AXF Becomes a SMPTE Standard

At the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the ratification of AXF as an Industry Standard is announced. AXF is made openly available to the public as SMPTE standard ST 2034-1:2014.

August 2017AXF Becomes a ISO/IEC Standard

AXF is ratified by ISO/IEC and published as a International Standard ISO/IEC 12034-1. As one of the original objectives of the AXF Committee, this represents the culmination of more than a decade of hard work.

TodayAXF Part 2 Development Work

The advancement of AXF continues under the scope of SMPTE AXF Part 2. AXF Part 2 aims to introduce key AXF concepts earlier in the creation process capturing important information in the evolution of an asset over time.

If you are a technology provider or end-user contemplating AXF in your environment, please contact us at info@axf.io or submit your questions or comments here. We have a team of AXF experts ready to assist.